Review by: zSolaris

Distillery: Wild Turkey
Region: Kentucky
ABV: 50%
Age: 17 Year.
Color: 1.6, Mahogany/Henna Notes. Natural Color and Non-Chill Filtered.
Nose: (according to the wife) Lots of baking spices here. It smells a bit of cherry pie with some vanilla. There’s a tinge of orange extract and a lot of oak. So much oak.
Palate: On the first sip, you get a mouthful of cherry with a hint of vanilla and cream. It’s quickly over taken by oak and with subsequent sips, the oak dominates more and more.
Finish: Long. Tons of oak with a bit of varnish. It’s slightly on the bitter side as well. It eventually gets a bit of a drying effect.
Conclusion: Well-aged Wild Turkey, how can you not get excited for that? I was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, it didn’t hit the right notes for me. The nose is pretty nice especially with the cherry pie and orange extract notes, but there’s a lot of oak as well which is a bit of a warning for things to come. The first sip is nice with cherries, vanilla, and cream but the oak that creeps in ends up dominating this whisky and those more subtle notes are lost very quickly. The finish is long, but again dominated by oak. If you like your whiskey to taste like wood, you’ll love this, but it isn’t for me.
Final Score: 74.
Scoring Legend:
- 95-100: As good as it gets. Jaw-dropping, eye-widening, unforgettable whisky.
- 90-94: Sublime, a personal favorite in its category.
- 85-89: Excellent, a standout dram.
- 80-84: Quite good. Quality stuff.
- 75-79: Decent whisky worth tasting.
- 70-74: Meh. It’s definitely drinkable, but it can do better.
- 60-69: Not so good. I might not turn down a glass if I needed a drink.
- 50-59: Save it for mixing.
- 0-49: Blech.